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Rep. Shea-Porter part of push to expose CEO salary ratio

U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., this week joined 31 other member of Congress in asking the Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission to support a proposed rule to require publicly traded companies to disclose the ratio between chief executive officer pay and median employee compensation.

“Over the course of my lifetime, I’ve watched American workers become more productive than ever, only to see wages remain largely stagnant. Over those same decades, CEO pay has gone through the roof, rising from 42 times the average pay of workers in 1980 to 354 times that of the average worker today,” Shea-Porter said in a statement.

“In 2012, the CEO of J.C. Penney made 1,795 times that of the average JCP employee. It’s time for publicly traded companies to report on this disparity.”

The letter to SEC chair Mary Jo White stated that it is important for investors to know the salaries of chief executives at publicly-traded corporations.

“At the same time, it is essential that these salaries be contextualized through comparison with the median employee salary at the firm,” according to a statement from Shea-Porter’s office. “The proposed rule also reflects public concern over disparate levels of executive compensation and the need to have this information available in an understandable format.”

Last week, Shea-Porter cosponsored legislation that would prevent Wall Street banks from collecting tax breaks on fines paid to the U.S. government as a result of irresponsible behavior.